Hydrogen-fuel station sets tone for state's energy future

Florida might be tailing California in the hydrogen-energy race, but Orlando just throttled up the state's production of the clean-burning, non-polluting fuel.

In front of schoolchildren and TV cameras Wednesday, Gov. Charlie Crist and a host of officials made speeches and cut a big blue ribbon to tout Florida's first hydrogen-fuel station, on Boggy Creek Road.

"We are setting the tone for our nation," Crist said. "We need to get off our dependency on foreign oil. . . . That is exactly what this is about."

But don't plan on pulling your SUV or station wagon to the pump and saying, "Fill 'er up" with hydrogen.

The station's fuel will power an eight-vehicle fleet of 12-person shuttle buses operating at the Orange County Convention Center and Orlando International Airport.

Four specially made Ford E-450 buses built by Ford Motor Co. are in use now, burning the hydrogen fuel in modified internal-combustion engines. Four more shuttle buses will arrive later, part of only 30 buses that Ford is delivering to locations nationwide.

Hydrogen, in various forms, is considered a promising fuel because it is one of the most abundant elements on Earth and contains lots of potential energy.

And burning hydrogen as a fuel produces almost no pollution. The exhaust from vehicles running on hydrogen fuel doesn't smell like anything, said Ravi Gopalakrishnan, a Ford engineer.

"It's water or water vapor," he said of the byproduct of burning the fuel in an internal-combustion engine. "What does water smell like?"

With concerns about global warming creating greenhouse gases and prices at the pump hitting record highs, the automotive industry is trying to satisfy America's call for alternative energy sources.

Yet while some automotive companies are experimenting with hydrogen-powered cars, the vehicles and fuel are expensive.

The Boggy Creek station was built by Chevron with Progress Energy and a $2 million grant from the Florida Department of Energy, which also gave $2.3 million toward the Ford buses.

The Holy Grail for the automotive industry is the hydrogen cell, a far more efficient way to generate power. But hydrogen cells are expensive to make and easy to break.

Sue Cischke, senior vice president at Ford, acknowledged that in the future, most Americans won't be riding buses or driving cars juiced on hydrogen fuel.

"We believe that the fuel cell is 10 or 15 years away," she said.

"This is bridging technology," Cischke said, adding that cost and storage issues are still challenges.

The hydrogen-fuel stations are rare in the U.S. The technology is developing largely in the high-tech powerhouse of California, where gas prices are among the highest in the nation.

Florida's new role in the emerging technology may have led to one of the lighter moments in Wednesday's mostly staged photo-op.

Rick Zalesky, Chevron's vice president for hydrogen fuel, apparently forgot where he was.

"Here in California," he said as the crowd corrected him in near unison.

"Forgive me, governor," he said, turning to a smiling and unfazed Crist. "Faux pas do happen."